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japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Just give me a Windows ARM VM and let that side handle the x86 (and soon x64) emulated Windows stuff. Should be faster than a full on emulated VM.

MS can do it themselves and sell it as Virtual PC!

# ¿ Oct 26, 2020 02:08

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 20:46

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

TenementFunster posted:

my gf's 2019 macbook air is slammed at 100% CPU usage on various desktop apps like zoom and chrome. I pull up the activity monitor and it doesn't seem like anything that shouldn't be running is causing the problem. are there any good diagnostic apps to help to see if it's a hardware issue? a core i5 should not take 120 seconds to open a chrome tab

Zoom eats CPU if you use virtual backgrounds (not sure about regular use...), Chrome isn't the best, and the 2019 MBAs are pretty slow in general. Is it ok if Zoom and Chrome are closed or does something else just eat up the CPU then? How's the RAM usage, and how much RAM does it have? If it's also running out of memory and swapping constantly I could see that causing things to go to poo poo.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2020 10:18

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Bored and searched around for some early impressions, found this (build time for one of this dev's apps):
https://twitter.com/monokakido/status/1328568694394347520

quote:

The MacBook Air M1 has arrived.

The MacBook Air 8 core built egword Universal 2 much faster than the Mac Pro 2019 16 core.

The overall performance of M1 is higher than the CPU benchmark.

I bought a Mac Pro last December and the price has increased tenfold, but what happens ...

And it gets hot and apparently isn't throttling much? (maybe it should...)
https://twitter.com/thehikaku/status/1328603993812197376

quote:

This is each temperature when the MacBook Air M1 is heavily loaded with CINEBENCH R23.

I don't know what the temperature is, so if anyone knows, let me know!
But 95 ℃ I think the temperature is high because there is something like that.

The surface temperature at this time is hot, especially the back surface is at a level where you will get burned if you touch it for 1 minute.

However, the processing speed does not slow down so much.

And probably a lot more but I'm not expanding a bunch of tweets to hit the translate button. Also some YouTube videos comparing the MBA to MBP...with no comparison to the Intel ones :downs:

# ¿ Nov 17, 2020 09:51

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Getting into software here, but apparently CrossOver still works:
https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/jwhite/2020/11/18/okay-im-on-the-bandwagon-apple-silicon-is-officially-cool

quote:

I can't tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers. Imagine - a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 - and it works! This is just so cool.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 01:12

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Rollie Fingers posted:

Anyone using the Mac Mini M1 8gb version yet?

The base Mini is seriously tempting me but I'm concerned about the lack of ram. I'd use it as a second computer for internet browsing, streaming and light video editing. All the reliable journalists seem to have reviewed the 16gb version.

I feel like I've seen reviews with the 8GB one, and iirc they were fine for video editing too. I think there was a difference with more complex stuff which I figure would be beyond "light" video editing.

FCKGW posted:

You couldn't get >16gb on the Intel laptops the M1 replaced either

But you can get 64GB on the Intel Mac mini :eng101:

(...course they didn't fully replace it)

# ¿ Nov 26, 2020 13:28

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Small White Dragon posted:

Interesting, hadn't followed this Twitter. They suggest a revised 16" Intel MBP is coming in the spring and the ARM 16 MBP is coming later in the year.

Are there any currently any paths to emulating older (x86) versions of OSX on an M1?

As an high-end MBP user, I am a little concerned in that I have occasionally had to make adjustments to an old but important multiplatform project that has some x86 assembly; as long as Rosetta is around, I'm not concerned for the few Mac users but I'm assuming I couldn't build/debug it on an M1 Mac with Rosetta.

(Maybe someone will eventually do something about it, but it's not my project and I don't know x86 assembly that well. This aside frankly I think x86's death is long overdue.)

Nothing yet afaik, something with QEMU will probably be the soonest unless Parallels/VMware are working on emulation, but everything they've said seems to point at just working on ARM virtualization.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2020 09:45

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

FCKGW posted:

Apple updated their trade-in program with the 2020 Intel laptops released earlier this year.

My 4-port 2020 Intel MBP gets $920

$620 for my MBA

...still tempting to swap for the M1 model.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2020 11:47

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Kingnothing posted:

It might be low cost retailer specific or Amazon specific cause it�s 128gb storage.

Apple doesn�t direct sell anything lower than 256gb@$899 (education) for the M1 airs.

For the Mac mini I'd guess it might be available to all the server companies since they just use their own networked storage so the local space doesn't matter at all to them.

Sad Panda posted:

Then an architecture question as you seem to be hot on that. While articles talk about the benefit of having unified memory because it reduces data duplication and the CPU and GPU can both process data in the same place, does this create a bottleneck in terms of access? Similar to my (possibly wrong) understanding of why there is separate data/instruction caches at L1?

From my layman's understanding (which he'll rip apart I'm sure) the efficiency gains are from not having to transfer the data around as much and having a unified memory addressing model or something. I think there's other stuff around that applies the latter to traditional mixed/separate memory, if I understand correctly Nvidia has been working on something like it for a while, MS might be using some aspects for the new Xboxes (and coming to PC where capable), I think AMD has something too but not sure it's gotten any traction.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2020 09:03

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Ok Comboomer posted:

I wouldn�t count Intel out, they have all the cash and size in the world and an industry full of well-established relationships to both leverage and protect.

In ten years we�ll be talking about how obvious it was that Intel was going to buy and hire their way to ARM competitiveness and the Mac will be in the same niche it was in in 2009 with a numerically larger user base.

Or about how Intel had an ARM license and made chips for years before selling it off to Marvell, along with turning down Jobs' pitch to make the iPhone chips.

buglord posted:

Can ARM tech eventually benefit high performance/gaming PCs? Or is there no point in developing ARM gaming PCs since you can just make a bigger CPU and keep feeding more power since you have much better cooling options? Its just weird that supposedly cell phone/tablet CPUs are outperforming hotter/slower/more power hungry processors?

I rewrote this post like six times trying to ask this question without outing myself an as an idiot. I have failed.

Well if they have just as much performance or more at similar or less power draw, I guess...case possibilities with more power/less cooling for the size, and potentially lower prices for whatever performance. It's just the hardware in the end, ultimately games are about the software. Basically it'll depend on MS pushing Windows on ARM and manufacturers making better ARM PCs, and people actually buying them and devs supporting them. Whole bunch of chickens and eggs to deal with.

ARM has higher performance reference designs coming soonish which should help the hardware side of things, but the rest is still a big rear end question mark. Nvidia's eventual ownership/involvement could make things interesting.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2020 10:59

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Twerk from Home posted:

Can the M1 Airs not do that already? Rocket league and fortnite run really well on the Switch, which is ARM and about half the power of a base iPad or iPhone.

Hell, rocket league ran well in a fanless GTX 750 setup I had a few years ago.

Course they pulled the Mac version a while back so it'd depend on them either bringing it back or running it through Crossover (or whatever other Windows options there might be down the line).

# ¿ Dec 10, 2020 07:32

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

FuturePastNow posted:

not with shared DDR4 memory bandwidth they won't

Apple is going to have to give it some dedicated graphics memory at that point. Or do something wacky.

Just run the whole drat thing on HBM.

(Although I think the latency is higher/bad for CPU loads so probably not, unless the bandwidth generally makes up for it?)

# ¿ Dec 11, 2020 01:28

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Bob Morales posted:

I'd be surprised if they ever get actual virtualization of amd64 actually working

I wonder if any major players are even trying. On the other hand x64 support is officially in the Windows ARM dev channel or whatever now, Virtual PC is right around the corner!

On a serious note, something that'll be of interest to some:
https://www.docker.com/blog/docker-desktop-3-0-0-smaller-faster-releases/

quote:

And today we have released to our preview users two exciting features that we know a lot of people have been waiting for: Docker Desktop on Apple M1 chips, and GPU support on WSL 2. To find out more about the Docker Developer Preview Program, read my colleague William Quiviger�s blog post.

Twerk from Home posted:

Serious question: what's the best vector drawing application to replace illustrator?

nth-ing Affinity Designer. It's got some of its own annoying little non standard UI quirks but for the most part it works and has good performance. There's also Photo and Publisher (like InDesign), the latter of which integrates the other two apps fully into itself which is pretty neat. I did run into some really obnoxious text on path bug in the Designer part within it, while standalone Designer itself was fine though :shrug:

.

There's a few other vector apps that have been around a while too, either older indie Mac stuff or coming from iOS, but it feels like Affinity kinda took over the non Adobe space.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2020 02:17

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

The Lord Bude posted:

And Microsoft edge is the new, better version of chrome.

Watch them fork it down the line like Google did from WebKit way back (and Apple from KHTML I guess).

# ¿ Dec 12, 2020 20:27

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

LODGE NORTH posted:

I recently got my girlfriend a mid-2015 MBP, the last one with MagSafe and no Touch Bar - she just needed something �better�. However, I had a laptop may a decade ago and back then, MagSafe chargers were prone to breaking drat near instantaneously. Similar to how companies like Anker, RavPower, and Mophie make stronger lightning cables than Apple�s offering, is/was there a similar thing for MagSafe chargers?

Not that I know of, they never licensed it and I don't think any of the reputable brands ever made any, so all the third party ones are generic no name knockoffs afaik. They could work fine, or they could kill the computer (I remember some old Rossman video about the particular chip they can short out), or any of the really bad stuff that can happen with sketchy power.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2020 10:30

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Perplx posted:

Got the docker preview on my new m1 pro, I couldn't docker-compose up my work project but it will run x86 containers using docker run so good enough.

Oh that's neat. For whatever reason I thought they were going to use the virtualization framework so x86 stuff would be boned. (Or probably just a lot more to it than a simple black and white answer)

gret posted:

Did the latest Big Sur update fix the problems people were having with the M1 Macs' bluetooth? I experienced some of the same issues (e.g., not recognizing wireless peripherals after sleep) but haven't had the chance to update my Mac yet.

I've been following an update thread elsewhere and iirc it sounds like it's at least better, not sure it's 100% fixed or anything though cause small sample size and all. I don't remember if I've seen any reason to not update at least, like there's definitely a bunch of fixes in there.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2020 02:36

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

BlackMK4 posted:

I just got a LG Ultrafine 27" 5k so I moved my existing Dell U2715H next to it in portrait mode. The dell looks super grainy / blurry now, is this caused by running two different scaling (5k and 2k) displays off the same machine under OSX, or is there some kind of setting that I need to change? To be clear, the Dell looked fine before.

If there doesn't seem to be anything wrong settings wise I'm guessing it's cause it's now next to a display with 4x the resolution, it might just look relatively lovely in direct comparison. But yeah as mentioned make sure it's running at its proper resolution (2560x1440).

Fleedar posted:

It’s the dpi.

For me the big thing about 5K is that you can run the HiDPI equivalent of 1440p without scaling, vs 1080p on a 4K. (And you can scale beyond that on both but I'm not sure how that looks on the latter).

# ¿ Dec 21, 2020 08:19

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Binary Badger posted:

I'll bet the fan is either idle or turning reeeeeal slow.. seen a lot of benchmarks, and the M1 Mini only breaks out from the Air and the 13-inch Pro because of its thermal subsystem..

I forget where I saw it, some video review I think, but the fan speed on the M1 mini under load on there was basically the same as my 2018 one at idle. Something around 1500 or 1700 RPM, which is pretty much silent.

Three Olives posted:

Are people just not doing 16gb with M1? I decided to order a 256GB 16GB Mini (All our data is mirrored on a 2TB Google Drive/Synology NAS with symmetrical gigabit fiber connection, so I really don't need much local storage) and it is looking like the 16GB M1 computers aren't particularly popular.

I�d guess you could attribute some of that to a combination of a lot of reviewers saying 16GB isn�t noticeable for most basic workloads, and some people buying these as a kind of stopgap machine, knowing it�s just the 1st gen and just saving the extra money for now. And/or availability of 8 vs 16, anecdotally I�ve seen a bunch of posts debating settling for 8 cause shipping times.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2020 04:57

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

redeyes posted:

USB 4.0 is gonna replace TB right?

It's...complicated, but the whole TB as branding thing makes sense in the context of it. USB will technically support the TB stuff as part of official USB protocol, but it's all optional, so having a "USB4" port doesn't mean poo poo as far as actually having TB support (particularly the PCIe part). TB branding basically means "this supports all the poo poo" (in theory) and you don't have to think about it.

(Course I'm thinking of the computer side ports in particular here, while USB cables will still be a shitshow I'm sure)

# ¿ Dec 26, 2020 10:51

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Perplx posted:

Nope, the best you can do is airplay to an appletv 4k or sidecar to an ipad, usb video adapters work but are slow and only suitable for static content. Its theoretically possible the build a splitter thats acts as 1 big display and outputs to 2 though, but really apple is telling you to wait for the next mac.

DisplayLink can do 4k60 nowadays, although I don't think it's all of them so depends on the particular adapter specs.

Another video showing a bunch at once w/motion on each (middle one being a native display):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rczrc-t4zLA

And this one shows moving a window between screens at the timestamp (3:28) so you can see (or not) the latency:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO9I7vHLMPY&t=208s

# ¿ Jan 5, 2021 09:19

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Quantum of Phallus posted:

Do I need to enable trim or anything like that if I�m running Big Sur off an external SSD?

I would assume the process is annoying or sketchy enough in some ways that I wouldn't bother, and I want to say modern SSDs are probably fine without it. Not optimal necessarily but not like the old days where they'd eventually turn to complete poo poo without it. At least that was the case a few years ago, I'm assuming/hoping garbage collection and such haven't regressed since then.

Skimming some of your posts, sounds like you're the guy that got the USB SSD for the iMac. I'm not sure TRIM commands can work over USB (maybe some newer modes), and even if they could, I'd be surprised if macOS had support for that anyway.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2021 12:23

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Virtue posted:

How much of a hit should I expect to take if I pick up an air now and trade it in for the newest thing in a year or two?

My MBA (i5/16GB/256GB) from early last year shows a trade in value of $620 (paid ~$1300*+100 tax), although I'm thinking you get a better ratio if you just get the lower end spec, like the value of upgraded specs only get passed on so much.

For private party sale I feel like the low end of the new models is kind of a soft price cap. Looks like mine can get around $800-1000 on eBay. There's also other seller/trade in sites that tend to have better prices than Apple but don't remember them and have no experience myself.

*I didn't know about the wink wink edu store and could've saved a bit :doh:

Edit: holy crap my iPad mini 4 gets $140 on trade in. Those things came out late 2015.

japtor fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Jan 9, 2021

# ¿ Jan 9, 2021 09:06

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

mentholmoose posted:

Hey, dumb question here. I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro with the Retina display and Thunderbolt 2 ports in the Mini-DisplayPort style connector. Is there a way to use a Thunderbolt 3 dock with the USB-C connector (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Thunderbolt-Windows-Laptops-Transfer/dp/B07Z2PF8FV/) with this laptop or am I going to have to search eBay for an old style Thunderbolt 2 dock? I saw this adapter I could theoretically use (https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter) but it looks like I also need a male to male Thunderbolt 2 cable to go with it and a dock that doesn't have a USB-C cable built-in. Is that the only way to get this to work or am I missing a simpler solution?

Yeah I think you got it, that adapter works both ways so in theory it should work. Basically you�d plug the adapter into that (or whatever) TB3 dock, then use a TB2 cable to connect the computer and adapter. Most (all?) desktop docks don�t have a cable built in so shouldn�t be a problem there. It specifically has to be TB btw, pretty sure cheaper USB-C ones won't work.

I don�t think there�s a simpler way unless there�s a TB2-3 cable, but I don�t think that exists. Ultimately it�s not that complicated, it�s just sticking an adapter in there and using a TB2 instead of TB3 cable.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2021 04:09

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Ziploc posted:

I want to know more about this TB2 to TB3 adapter. Is it TB2 Female to TB3 Male?

Yeah exactly that, it was linked in the first post asking about it:

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

Neat that it�s bidirectional so you can hook up new TB3 stuff to old computers or old TB2 stuff to new computers.

Kaklashnikov posted:

If you tap and hold the volume icon on the touchbar you can slide it back and forth to adjust the volume without waiting for it to go to the next menu. This works for brightness too.

Only had a touchbar for like a week so don�t remember for sure, but do you even have to hold? Like I think you can tap-slide immediately and not wait for the visual button expansion while holding. (efb)

# ¿ Jan 17, 2021 21:01

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

You forgot the MacBook SE

# ¿ Jan 21, 2021 03:44

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

BobHoward posted:

The best thing you can do to help the thing out is to switch from Chrome to Safari. Chrome is a resource pig, especially RAM, and RAM is the problem here - 4GB isn't enough. Unfortunately there's no way to upgrade that, so all you can do is change what software you use.

For example for the OP, this was a recent thing that came to light: https://chromeisbad.com/

(No clue if that�s been the issue with Chrome, or just one of many, since performance issues have been a thing for years)

Bob Morales posted:

They never made a 13 MBP with 4GB did they? I know they made a 12...

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i5-2.4-13-late-2013-retina-display-specs.html

quote:

Ships standard with 4 GB (ME864LL/A) or 8 GB (ME865LL/A) of 1600 MHz DDR3L SDRAM onboard.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2021 02:42

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Empress Brosephine posted:

Whatever loving idiot decided to put one usb on the m1 mac mini should be fired

Also In general if seems like usb barely works with the mini. My lg monitor usb extension "draws too much power" and if it's plugged in will make the m1 poo poo off all usb ports ugh

...there's two USB-A and two USB-C ports :confused:

Last Chance posted:

safari 14 supports webp (but no one uses it anyway), has always embedded webms fine for me (at least from imgur), only missing the anchor thing really, which is annoying

I'm guessing Imgur is seeing Safari and serving a mp4 version on the fly.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2021 08:09

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Quantum of Phallus posted:

And it's about to get even worse

Just look for the Thunderbolt� :smugdog:

and pay 2-4x the price

I think almost all the USB-C cables I�ve gotten I went for 10Gbps ones...other than specific charge only use ones where they�re like USB 2.0.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2021 06:43

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

There was some utility that kept drives active by doing a periodic read/write to a file on your drives to keep it from idling and sleeping. Totally forget what it's called but whoever could probably write a script to do the same thing.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2021 02:15

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

BobHoward posted:

Yes, the iPad doesn't count towards that. Same goes for DisplayLink based USB video cards. If your main purpose for another display is to display fairly static content (say, you want a place to put a PDF you're referring to from time to time while you do your work on other displays), DisplayLink is usually very needs suiting.

Hell DisplayLink stuff can do 4k/60 these days, and performance is pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEhoFz6ldSU&t=143s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1J3lSZfrko

Probably not perfect or anything but definitely more useful than just static content.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2021 08:08

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

This is my favorite random harmless bug I�ve run into lately (albeit old Intel Mac on Mojave):

I was using Quick Look to skim through some PDFs and this randomly happened on the last two pages of one of them. Maybe 120hz would�ve given me smoother spinning.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2021 23:09

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Bob Morales posted:

Paperboy on the Mac App Store

Does it kill you with IAPs?

# ¿ Feb 14, 2021 19:04

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Shaocaholica posted:

So what you're saying is I can run 10.5 on it.

And GameCube and Wii games!

# ¿ Feb 20, 2021 10:56

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Hadlock posted:

Oh, I was thinking of the USB4 spec. 20201015 USB4 Spec (not thunderbolt 4) 2.1.5 on page 13 says "can optionally support interoperability with Thunderbolt 3 (TBT3) products"

I'll have to look up the tbt4 spec later, I bet you're right about tb4

Yeah that's the usual USB-C supported feature crap which still continues with USB4. "TB3 is part of the USB4 spec! ...but it's totally optional so there's no guarantee a USB4 port will support TB."

As of TB's shift to USB-C with TB3 and becoming part of the USB4 standard, they've basically shifted messaging gears to say TB is the ultimate full featured USB-C port/cable, since the standard is such a shitshow with all the optional stuff. It can be anything from a low power only and/or USB 1 data to 40Gbps TB3 w/100W power.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2021 11:19

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Speaking of old Macs, here�s something I came across the other day. Remember how PowerMac G5s were used as Xbox 360 dev kits? Apparently the OS got dumped a while ago and can be run with the right G5 and particular set of parts:

https://www.journaldulapin.com/2019/01/21/power-mac-g5-sdk/

# ¿ Mar 6, 2021 01:47

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Hitch posted:

Is now a good time to buy a new M1 MacBook Pro or are we somewhat mid cycle and more significant changes are rumored for next version. I�ve never owned a Mac but looking to get one. I just heard the Touch Bar was going away and not sure if I should wait or not.

Normally it's just buy it now if you want/need it, or wait an indefinite amount of time if you can stand to wait if you really want the latest...

But March/April tends to be a time Apple announces stuff, and there's a recent rumor about a March 23rd event. So if you can wait, might as well wait 10 days and see what happens at this point.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2021 02:37

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Blue Scream posted:

I'm trying to access some 1.5" IBM floppy disks from the 1990s. There are a ton of cheap external floppy drives, but most of them seem to be only Windows compatible. I ordered a branded Dainty one that said it was Mac compatible, and Amazon shipped me an unbranded Windows-only drive instead

Any recommendations for specific drives, or non-drive solutions? Do I have a hope of recuperating my ancient files to a 2020 i3 Macbook Air?

Did you test it out or just assuming it doesn't work? I guess one thing you could try is using it with an older Windows VM ( :toot:

x86)

# ¿ Apr 28, 2021 00:12

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

jokes posted:

I hope you enjoyed reading about me losing nearly $500 looking for a keyboard that reminds me of Mac keyboards because apparently only Apple and Microsoft make good keyboards for my stupid loving brain

This is basically why I'm still using my old rear end Apple keyboards.

Space Gopher posted:

I wouldn't get the tenkeyless one, because ctrl-alt-del is occasionally important and you need to mess with custom layouts to get a delete key.

I wonder if fn+backspace (delete) works for ctrl-alt-delete in Windows...I want to say it does but haven't tried in forever.

frogbs posted:

I feel like I have to mention this thing from Nuphy, which has low-profile mechanical switches and RGB while also still being relatively thin compared to most mechanical keyboards https://nuphy.com/products/nutype-f1

I've been looking into making my own keyboard with the same switches...but don't want to go down that path of hell not knowing whether I'll really like them (...and possibly weird layout) or not. Might do an arrow+numpad thing as a smaller project first.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2021 23:10

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Last Chance posted:

I love the magic keyboard. I one on every machine I interact with. It�s really top notch.

I'd probably get a new one if they fixed the arrow keys on the short one :argh:

italian quid posted:

I love these mechanical keyboards that don't include basic poo poo like a number pad, like what functionality gains am I getting here from switching to that?

Other than different noises you can do some custom layout and macro stuff I think, so you can kinda tailor it to your particular needs/preferences. I'd say small size but the Apple ones are already pretty small, and going any smaller I think you make sacrifices on layout. Like that one chopped off the function row/media keys and right shift makes room for the arrow keys (and short delete key for...some reason). There's ones that cut out waaay more, but generally afaik everything is accessible with different modifier keys. Think of the iOS/Android keyboards and how you switch the keyboard to get different punctuation, the really small keyboards are like a hardware version of that.

Oh and I guess lights :pcgaming:

. And some have a speaker and can switch to a beep boop piano mode. And of course cosmetic mods like fancy rear end keycaps.

tl;dr it's still a keyboard. If you want a different or particular feel, they can give you that.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2021 10:08

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

LionArcher posted:

Before I could figure out that I actually could use a mechanical keyboard, (turns out cherry browns are the sweet spot and don�t hurt my hands) I knew only three keyboards worked. The Microsoft sculpt, the Logitech MX keys, and the Apple keyboards from that era. Both the old Bluetooth one that took actual AA batteries, and the wired one. I spent like $300 to grab 3 brand new in box wired ones last spring LOL. Now that I have the brown keyboard and it works, I�m happy with it for now but it�s nice to have back ups.

I have the short and long wired ones, and the AA battery Bluetooth one (that I got for like $45 lightly used on Craigslist). And a few other cheap Logitech and MS ones that were...serviceable. One of each were for my HTPC at the time, with short keyboard + trackpad. The MS one was special, I forget exactly but I think keyboard input blocked the trackpad (and/or the other way around), with a noticeable timeout before it'd allow input again.

One thing with the full length Apple ones is their numpad layout, instead of the usual double height plus key it's normal height, and have an equal key fit in the extra space. Not a huge deal but it's nice for doing simple formulas while doing number entry. There's some newer Bluetooth number pads that have the layout...but the one I tried was useless cause the range (2018 Mac mini Bluetooth :argh:

) and had no wired fallback.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 02:31

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 20:46

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

mediaphage posted:

in the meantime since you're not doing anything high speed you can maybe do a displaylink usb connection to drive another monitor

Modern DisplayLink appears to be pretty good so not sure that caveat applies wholesale to it anymore.

Martytoof posted:

Hmm that�s not an awful idea but ultimately I think I might just need to adjust my workflow. I have two iPads handy so I�ll just move my documentation offline

...you could use one of them for Sidecar :shrug:

# ¿ May 5, 2021 04:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy

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